Neal: Through daunting part of schedule, Lynx just keep on winning

Alanna Smith entered the Lynx media room Saturday and assured everyone that Courtney Williams was right behind her. A couple moments later, Williams entered, walking like she had aged 30 years over her grueling 35 minutes of game action.

Williams smiled and greeted the room before exhaling and saying, “Man, we had to work for that one.”

The game wasn’t secured until the 40th and final minute as New York forced the Lynx to expend every ounce of energy in an 86-80 victory at Target Center. But it continued an impressive run of success while All-World forward Napheesa Collier mends a sprained right ankle.

The Lynx have lost six of 34 games all season, five regular season contests and one in the finals of Commissioner’s Cup play. None have been to the defending champion New York Liberty.

The Lynx are 3-0 against them this season. While critics point to star forward Breanna Stewart being injured for the games, the Lynx are missing the favorite to win the MVP award. In her absence, the Lynx are now 4-0.

That led a sportswriter in the crowd — me — to ask coach Cheryl Reeve in jest if winning without Phantastic Phee is hurting her chances of winning the award.

“That’s in jest?” Reeve replied.

The Lynx led 21-12 after a quarter and built the lead to 13 in the second. The Liberty missed their first nine three-point attempts, compounding that with unforced as well as forced turnovers. But New York went on an 8-0 run to end the second quarter and came out of halftime breathing fire.

The Liberty scored the first 10 points of the third quarter as the Lynx went 0-for-7 from the field during the run. They weren’t matching New York’s intensity and had Reeve seething over their defensive effort.

It looked like it would be the game in which they could have used Collier the most. And Reeve also noticed some heads hanging during the moments when they were struggling.

Then they stopped.

Williams was a cheat code the entire afternoon, firing 26 points and getting four of her five assists in the fourth quarter when it was time to get her teammates involved.

The lead changed hands three times in the fourth quarter as Smith scored 10 of her 14 points and Jessica Shephard scored seven of her 17. Smith also held New York’s great center Jonquel Jones to no points and no field goal attempts in the fourth.

It was Williams who gave the Lynx the lead for good when she drove then ducked under defenders for a lay-in with 1 minute, 46 seconds left to make it 79-78. Kayla McBride finally entered the chat with 30.8 seconds left with a three-pointer to give the Lynx an 82-78 lead. She shot 3-of-14 for the game, but the Lynx know how to adapt to someone having an off night.

Reeve has seen her team refocus in the middle of bad stretches. It’s a trait that will serve them well in the postseason. (Yes, they have already clinched a playoff berth.)

The person who makes the WNBA schedule must be the same person who plans road construction projects in the Twin Cities. The Lynx and Liberty play again on Tuesday, their third consecutive game against New York. And it will be the fourth meeting in 18 days between the teams.

Lynx fans must love the domination over the Liberty, as many among the announced crowd of 10,810 wore shirts that read, “Everyone Watched Minnesota Get Robbed” in reference to their controversial loss to New York in last year’s finals.

“I want them to lose because they beat us,” Williams said. “It’s competitive nature. Y’all beat us, so I want y’all to lose everything.”

Reeve said Collier’s foot is feeling, “great,” so the countdown is on for her expected return to the lineup sometime during the next handful of games. When she went down on Aug. 2, Reeve noted that the Lynx had one of the tougher remaining schedules in the league.

They are navigating through that schedule splendidly.